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Brian Burtch Confronts Homophobia

Brian Burtch was a guest contributor on the FEDCAN blog at Equity Matters. He wrote an article called, Education Matters: Confronting Homophobia and Transphobia in Schools.

This entry is part of the CFHSS’s VP Equity Issues series on issues related to LGBTQI2-S (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, questioning, intersex and Two-Spirited) peoples.

Our awareness of homophobia and transphobia in high schools has been heightened by a growing body of research and media commentary that is beginning to take seriously the dynamics of exclusion and resistance experienced by LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, two-spirited, and questioning) students. As Rebecca Haskell and I wrote in our book, Get That Freak, “Sometimes the lessons are brutal, involving bullying that is so persistent and hateful that young people take their own lives, whether they have been targeted for their sexual orientation, gender identity or any other number of reasons.” For us, it is important that homophobia and transphobia are not dismissed as incidental but rather as part-and-parcel of school contexts where LGBTQ people have always been, although not always well-represented in curricula and where resources, such as teacher-allies and gay-straight alliances, may not be available to some students. Read more...